


Dangerous roses

by RaidouKuzunoha



Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Childhood Friends, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Young Saints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 17:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4400717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaidouKuzunoha/pseuds/RaidouKuzunoha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shura is tasked to take care of the roses around the Twin Fish Temple while Aphrodite is gone. Like every job, Shura does it well. Though this time, perhaps too well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dangerous roses

Aphrodite was a very young Saint who had been wearing the Pisces Gold Cloth for only a short time. He was one of the few Saints who received direct lessons from the Grand Pope of the Sanctuary. The Pope, the former Aries Saint, felt quite relieved to see that the Saint of the last temple was so eager to learn what he had to teach him. Most of the teachings that Pope Shion passed to the young Saint were about how to take care of the roses protecting the path towards the Pope’s chambers. Aphrodite was proud of having such task in his hands, so he would listen to every word that came from Shion’s mouth carefully.

After the lessons of that day were over, the young Saint hurriedly went back to the Twelfth Temple, as he had planned to meet the two Saints he spent the most time with there. Cancer Deathmask and Capricorn Shura were sitting outside his temple near the rose garden, and when Aphrodite arrived he waved at the other two to catch their attention.

The three of them had been friends since they arrived to the Sanctuary, thanks to the fact that the three were close in age. They were known as a troublemaking trio… or, well, _Deathmask and Aphrodite_ were known as the troublemakers of the sanctuary, while poor Shura was always dragged into the mischief making of the other two…not that he really participated in them. Most of the time he was next to them trying to stop whatever their plans were, but he usually gave up when he saw it was a lost cause. Shura was known as the most calm of the three, and the only one of them who would respect all the rules of the Sanctuary.

When Aphrodite finally caught the eyes of Deathmask and Shura they waved back, and he walked over to where they were sitting with an air of self-importance that made the other two suspicious. There was a reason Aphrodite had called the other two to visit the Temple of the Twin Fish, and it was because he had an important announcement to make; which he wasted no time in conveying to the two Saints in front of him.

“Today I’ll teach you both how to take care of the roses of this garden” He said proudly as he put his hands on his hips, “If I’m ever unable to do so I need you guys to—” The guardian of the temple was quickly interrupted by the laugh of one of his companions.

“What? So you want us to take care of your dumb flowers?” Asked the white haired kid with a mocking tone.

Not happy at all with what he just had heard, the Pisces Saint glared at him and spoke again.

“Haven’t you learned anything? The roses of this place are very important because—”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say”

Aphrodite wasn’t going to accept being interrupted twice by the same asshole Italian. He didn’t know why he even bothered calling Deathmask to such an important task, but then again it wasn’t like he talked much with Saints other than two who were already with him… and he needed another back-up since Shura couldn’t do everything by himself.

Before Aphrodite snapped at Deathmask’s sarcasm, Shura finally spoke to avoid a fight that could go on for hours. “So what do you need me to do?”

Happy with having piqued the interest of at least one of the two, the Pisces Saint clasped his hands together and started to explain. “Well let’s see… I only need you to do simple things like watering the roses so they don’t wither, I should start showing you the normal roses and then—”

Aphrodite kept talking quite enthusiastically as he walked to a row of roses while Shura and Deathmask followed him from behind. Shura could hardly understand botany and what his friend was saying, yet he still did his best to remember every word. Deathmask, on the other hand, was crouching next to them looking for some bugs on the soil to squash. He had no interest in learning the “nonsense” coming from Aphrodite’s mouth, and after all he just wanted them to water the flowers, right? How hard could that be? Plus, he only had to take care of them if Shura wasn’t able to, so him learning botany wasn’t top-priority. At least that’s what he thought.

Before Aphrodite could explain any further, he was called by one of the Grand Pope’s servants back to The Pope’s Chambers. Pope Shion needed to give him important information before sending him out on a mission that same day.

———

Before parting, Aphrodite visited the Capricorn temple and entrusted Shura with his roses, as he knew he was the only one who actually listened to what he said. After a simple goodbye he was off.

Shura knew the importance of the roses that Aphrodite took care of as well as how much his friend cared about them. So the next day he knew what he had to do… or at least that’s what he thought. Once he got to the Twelfth Temple’s garden he realized Aphrodite hadn’t told him if he needed to water the poisonous roses that lead to The Pope’s Chambers, or what kind of special treatment _they_ might need. He slowly approached the roses while keeping his distance with them, trying to figure out what to do with them.

His eyes and body started feeling heavy out of nowhere. The change was so sudden he didn’t even have time to react.

Before he knew it he was lying on the ground with an intense pain on his chest, fighting to breathe.

———

Deathmask had been bored most of the day, with Aphrodite gone for a mission and Shura not returning from watering the roses, he had no one to annoy for his own amusement.

The only thing that kept him busy while waiting for one of the other two to come back was a bird that landed near the entrance of his temple. He found quite fun to remove its soul and put it back again multiple times, but it had already become dull with how many times he had repeated the same process, so he decided to go find out why was taking Shura so long.

Half-heartedly he went up the stairs of each temple finally reaching the last one. He had no intentions on helping Shura with gardening, but at least he could bug him while he was doing it.

After getting to the other side of the temple he looked around for his target, ready to annoy him as he was used to. Instead he spotted at the corner of his eye something that sent the young Cancer Saint’s thoughts scattering.

The body of his friend laying on the floor.

“ _Cazzo!"_ ¹

The first thing that went through Deathmask’s mind was a surprise attack, but as approached the small body he sensed the smell of death reeking from the roses that were only a few steps away from both of them. He didn’t fully understand what had happened but he was sure of one thing, he had to get Shura and himself the hell away from there. He grabbed the knocked out Saint and lifted his body so he was able to wrap his arms under his. Deathmask quickly dragged him to the inside of the Pisces Temple, laying his body on the bed of the absent Pisces Saint.

 _What was he going to do?_ Shura’s breathing was barely noticeable and he couldn’t leave him alone, even to go look for help. Moving him around wasn’t an option either as it could damage him even more.

_Laughter._

That’s the only thing that could come out of the Cancer Saint’s mouth when he realized he couldn’t think of a single thing to do. It wasn’t his usual laugh and his face started to twitch terribly. He couldn’t stop.

This was the kind of laughter that only occurs when one is too nervous to find a course of action, or when everything just seems to be lost.

But finally the Cancer Saint thought of something… really, it was obvious… as he couldn’t hear Shura’s breathing at all anymore.

It was quite possible he had already died.

“…All I need to do is go get his soul back from the Yomotsu Hirasaka, right?” Deathmask said to himself. He figured that even if his soul wasn’t there yet it was soon going to be, so he might as well try that.

Calming himself, Deathmask began concentrating on teleporting himself to the Yomotsu.He hadn’t been there many times before, since going to the Yomotsu with his body intact took too much energy… it was still a technique he was improving. He had gone a few times to observe the souls standing in line waiting for their imminent fall, since he had found it amusing, even funny, to see the diversity of the people there, and just how many of them there were. He felt great every time he went there, seeing the people who hadn’t been strong enough to keep living… but not this time.

This time it felt different.

When he got to the _Yomotsu_ he was greeted by the screams of souls falling to their eternal rest in the deepest pits of the underworld, yet he couldn’t manage to even smile at the sound he had loved hearing every time he was there.

The young Cancer Saint looked around, deciding which line of souls to check first. He had never gone to the entrance of the Underworld looking for one tiny soul, so he already felt overwhelmed by the amount of souls in his sight. The young Saint started to run alongside the first batch of lined up souls he chose to check, turning his head every now and then to make sure the soul he was looking for wasn’t roaming out of the lines. He became frustrated when turning his head so often blurred his vision and made it hard for him to distinguish what was in front of him.

His pace began to slow increasingly the longer he stayed in that place. Being in the Yomotsu in flesh was already tiring enough for him to handle with such little training without the added stress of searching for his friend’s soul. Deathmask felt defeat, and a great pressure in his eyes that had been holding back tears of frustration for the past few minutes. But he wasn’t going to let himself cry now, not after all the deaths he had seen in his short life span… this was just another one of those…. right?

After one final look around that ended in vain, Deathmask used the little energy he had left to teleport back to the Pisces Temple.

———

Back at the Twelfth Temple Deathmask was surprised to see Pope Shion, who was sitting on the bed next to Shura.

Who is sitting up underneath the covers, very much alive.

Confused, Deathmask stared at Shura and then looked to Shion, searching for the answers to questions he couldn’t bring himself to speak. Because of his reaction, Shion came to the conclusion that the young Cancer Saint must have brought the Capricorn Saint to the Pisces Temple. After realizing this, the Grand Pope proceeded to explain the situation to the startled Saint.

“I felt a familiar cosmos wavering in the Pisces Temple so I came to investigate and found Shura here” The old pope stated calmly in a measured tone, “He had the symptoms of one poisoned by the deadly roses. It is good that that you brought him here, as I arrived in time to administer to him the antidote.” He indicated a small vial at the table near the bed that Shura was sitting in, “I have a small amount on hand for instances like this,” The older saint smiled sadly.

Deathmask only nodded to show that he understood, he was scared to speak as he had been holding back tears; he couldn’t imagine anything more terrible than his voice cracking in the middle of his reply. Therefore, instead of saying anything he just walked over to Shura and hugged him for the first time, or at least the first time that he’d done so seriously. Shura wasn’t used to this kind of action coming from the Cancer Saint and it was almost overwhelming in his tired state, but before he worded his confusion, Deathmask punched him on the shoulder.

“Deathmask!” The Grand Pope yelled as he stood up from the bed, “His body is still weak from the poison, be more careful!” he added, trying to calm himself down before he went into one of his tirades against Deathmask, which were quite common with the misbehaving child.

———

  
A couple of days had passed when Pisces Aphrodite came back from his mission.

As he slowly climbed up the stairs leading up to the Leo Temple on his way to his own temple, he was stopped by the guardian of the Temple he went through moments before. Deathmask had approached him by putting his arm around his neck, lowering his head and messing his hair with his free hand. Pissed off, the other Saint hit him in the gut with his elbow to push the annoying crab away.

“You’re being more annoying than usual”  


“Hehe… you know what? You should be glad to have such a good friend like me who saves people from your stupid roses” he replied with a grin and turned around to walk back to the fourth Temple. Aphrodite stared perplexedly, trying to understand the meaning behind his words, when he saw Deathmask raising his hand as if in farewell as he walked away.

“ Oh and say hi to Shura for me, he still isn ’ t allowed to get out of bed ”

Ignoring what the other Saint said, the Pisces Saint continued his way back to the Pisces Temple. When he went through the Capricorn Temple he realized Shura wasn’t there to greet him but he did feel his cosmos nearby, so curiosity took him and he decided to investigate. Walking to the bedroom of said Temple, Aphrodite realized what had happened once he saw Shura’s state.

“Why did you go near those roses if you knew how dangerous they are? I didn’t tell you how to take care of them because you didn’t have to get close to them at all!” Aphrodite frowned as he continued scolding the weakened boy, only stopping once the other finally spoke.

“I didn’t want any of your roses to die since they are so important to you.” he said firmly, looking straight into the eyes of the person who had given him this important task. Aphrodite knew Shura’s sense of responsibility was very strong and that’s why he had entrusted his roses to him, but he also realized that that was the same reason he got in such a situation. This finally made Aphrodite stop frowning. Instead he got close enough to hug the Saint who still wasn’t able to get out of bed because of his fault.

“You’re very stupid, you know?” Shura just blinked in concern after hearing those words while the young Pisces Saint wrapped his arms around him. Not only Deathmask but also Aphrodite had hugged him like that in the same week. It wasn’t something he was used to.

…But it wasn’t something he would mind happening more often either, even if he couldn’t fully understand why.

**Author's Note:**

> ¹Cazzo: Fuck


End file.
